Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-13T20:11:49.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

EPISTEMOLOGY OF TONE: AN OBITUARY FOR JULIEN JALÂL ED-DINE WEISS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2017

Stefan Pohlit
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

During the 1980s, Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss, founder of the Al-Kindi ensemble of Aleppo, invented a qānūn in just intonation with which he attempted to solve a major discrepancy between the theory and practice of maqām-scales. Weiss objected to the introduction of Western standards, observing that they distort the significance of interval ratios and prevent a comparative understanding of the modal system as a transnational phenomenon. In the twentieth century, the implementation of equal-semitone temperament emerged simultaneously with a notable invasion of sociological criteria into musical inquiry. The polarity observed between westernisation and tradition can be seen most visibly in the present search for identity amongst Middle- and Near-Eastern musicians, but this schismogenic process can also be observed in the history of the Western avant-garde, where microtonal explorations have been halted in favour of extra-musical conceptuality. While cross-cultural musicians are faced with a new climate of distrust, it seems most likely that the principles that draw us apart may originate in the very patterns of thought in which our notion of culture operates. Weiss's tuning system may serve as a helpful tool to foster a new and universal epistemology of tone, bridging and transcending the apparent contradictions between the two spheres.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 71 , Issue 281 , July 2017 , pp. 71 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Stokes, Martin, ‘Music and the Global Order’, Annual Review of Anthropology 33 (2004), p. 67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Pohlit, Stefan, ‘Julien Jalâl Ed-Dine Weiss: A Novel Proposal for the Middle-Eastern Qānūn’, Analytical Approaches to World Music Journal 2, no. 1 (2012), pp. 49‒86 Google Scholar.

3 Weiss, Julien B. J. and Pohlit, Stefan ‘Divisions of the Apotome on the Middle-Eastern Qānūn’ in Mikrotonalität. Praxis und Utopie, ed. Walter, Caspar Johannes and Pätzold, Cordula (Stuttgart: Schott, 2014), pp. 212–15Google Scholar.

4 Marcus, Scott, ‘The Interface between Theory and Practice: Intonation in Arab Music’, Asian Music 24, no. 2 (1993), pp. 39–58 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 D'Erlanger, Rodolphe, La Musique Arabe V (Paris: Geuthner, 2001 (1935)), p. 20 Google Scholar, fig. 6.

6 Yavuzoğlu, Nail, 21. Yüzyılda Türk Müziği Teorisi (Istanbul: Pan, 2012)Google Scholar.

7 Ozan Yarman, 79-Tone Tuning Theory for Turkish Maqam Music as a Solution to the Non-Conformance between Current Model and Practice (PhD diss., İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, 2008), p. 93.

8 Signell, Karl Lloyd, Makam: Modal Practice in Turkish Art Music (Sarasota: Usul Editions, 2008 (1977)), pp. 41, 44–45 Google Scholar; and Özkan, İsmail Hakkı, Türk Mûsıkîsi Nazariyatı ve Usûlleri (İstanbul/TR: Ötüken, 2006 (1982)), pp. 38, 62Google Scholar.

9 Ernest. MacClain, G., Meditations Through the Quran: Tonal Images in an Oral Culture (York Beach, ME: Nicolas Hays, 1981), pp. 78–90 Google Scholar.

10 Ernest. MacClain, G., The Pythagorean Plato. Prelude to the Song Itself (York Beach, ME: Nicholas Hays, 1978), pp. 78–9Google Scholar.

11 Said, Edward, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1979), p. 108 Google Scholar.

12 Bateson, Gregory, ‘Culture Contact and Schismogenesis’ in Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 2000 (1936)) p. 64 Google Scholar.

13 Bateson, ‘Culture Contact’, p. 68.

14 Lévi-Strauss, Claude, Tristes Tropiques (Paris: Plon, 1955), p. 486 Google Scholar.

15 Aydın, Yılmaz, Türk Beşleri (Ankara: Müzik Ansiklopedisi, 2003), p. 67 Google Scholar.

16 Gökalp, Ziya, Türkçülüğün Esasları, (Istanbul: Toka, 2002 (1923)), pp. 147ffGoogle Scholar.

17 Schoenberg, Arnold, Theory of Harmony, trans. Carter, Roy E. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010 (1911)), pp. 383ffGoogle Scholar.

18 Adorno, Theodor. W., Philosophie der neuen Musik (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000 (1958))Google Scholar.

19 Hakan Ulus, ‘Nehmt die Musik wieder ernst! Zur Lage der Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2016’, Musiktexte 151 (November, 2016), p. 94.

20 Lehmann, Harry, ‘Avantgarde heute’ Musik und Ästhetik 38 (April 2006), p. 34 Google Scholar.

21 Adorno, Philosophie der neuen Musik, p. 20.

22 Langner, Gerald, ‘Temporal Processing of Periodic Signals in the Auditory System: Neuronal Representation of Pitch, Timbre, and Harmonicity’, Zeitschrift für Audiologie 46, no. 1 (2007), pp. 8–21 Google Scholar.

23 Lehmann, Harry, Gehaltsästhetik: Eine Kunstphilosophie (Paderborn: Wilhelm Fink, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

24 Kayser, Hans, Der hörende Mensch (Stuttgart/D: Engel u. Co., 1993 (1930)), p.79fGoogle Scholar.

25 Kayser, Der hörende Mensch, p. 86, fig. XXVII.

26 Kayser, Der hörende Mensch, p. 89f.

27 Lehman, Gehaltsästhetik, p. 9.

28 Small, Christopher, Musicking. The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

29 Langner, ‘Temporal Processing’, p. 21.

30 Langner, ‘Temporal Processing’, p. 11.

31 Celan, Paul, ‘Der Meridian: Rede anlässlich der Verleihung des Georg-Büchner-Preises am 22. Oktober 1960’, Gesammelte Werke in sieben Bänden, Vol. III (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1986), p. 192 Google Scholar.